Quadrajet Alternatives?

[Shaun1162]

Hi guys!

Been lurking some, and made a few posts, but this is my first thread.

I have an 84 K30 (Military M1028) that the previous owner put a 330HP crate 350 into. For the carb, he went with an Edelbrock 795CFM Quadrajet. It runs awsome on a warm day, but if it's cold out, it just doesn't want to run. I'll let it warm up for 10 minutes, and it'll stall on me repeatedly.

It was worse when I first got it, so I had my uncle clean the carb, changed the in-line fuel filter, and he changed the timing on it. It ran alot better for a while.. But now it's back to stalling everytime I put it in drive.

I'm getting fed up with it now, and was wondering if I should just move onto a new carbeurator? I was thinking of just a small 4 barrel (500-600CFM) but wanted to hear some opinions.

Thanks!

[85burb]

Just tore my q jet off few weeks ago. Had a brand holley 670 cfm street avendger sitting on a brand new manifold for about 6 mounths. Doing a ls motor swap and adding a carb. So i installed it and man did it make it better to drive. I just get in and push the throttle down 1/4 way to reset the electric choke and release it and tap the key and my old wore out sbc springs to life even at like 30 degres out side. The q jet took atleast 3 tryes to even get to run for a few seconds. Maybe if its all stock put a 570 on it. Also see way better low end from new carb. Still need to tune it some.

[Mkcustums]

A simple out of the box carb that I have had good luck with is the Edelbrock 1406. I know a lot of other people that run them too.

[Shaun1162]

85 Burb, I'm definately getting tired of trying to get the Q-jet to run in the cold.. I'd love to drive it in the morning to school or work, but it just became to much of a hassle for me. The engine is the H.O. 350, so it's got the Vortec heads, and a few other things, and added headers, so I'm thinking around a 600CFM will do.

Mkcustums, I'll definately look into the 1406. I forget which Edelbrok intake it has on it, so I might end up going shopping for an intake too.

Thanks guys!

[OleBlue79]

I would save some cash and have the Q-jet rebuilt. Mine does great even in 30 degree weather. Plus the Q-jet will give you more economy because of the small front barrells too. But it has the huge back barrells you can romp on. That just my opinion. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[85burb]

could do the holley carb calculator on there web sight. Anything new or well rebuilt will do great. I was going to have my q jet redone buy one of them qjet only places and they said $570. That is almost 2x the cost of my new carb. I like the new ones cause they are easy to tune.

[TheWhiteElephant]

The QJet undeservingly gets knocked too much. Some of the earlier QJets had plugs that leaked fuel from the bowl after sitting for a while, making them hard to start the next time around. There are things to alleviate this. The later ones had that problem solved from the factory. Although that doesn't sound like the issues you are having, I would tune it before spending the cash on another carb.

Have you rebuilt the carb yet? Kit costs $13.99 at any of the parts stores. The QJet is one of the best performing carbs out there. Admittedly though, they are more complicated than the Holley or Carter/Edelbrock carbs out there.

I hope you get it worked out.